Master gardener John Hethrington lives in Meaford where he tends to 20 different gardens. His advice for all gardeners is this: there's always work to be done.
Here are his tips for August gardening tasks:
We have certainly had the heat this summer, and the rain as well. The corn is high and the weeds too!
Your garden should be looking great. Congratulations!
Now, what to do this month.
Top up your mulch. Keep it at least two inches deep. It works to suppress weeds, keeps the soil cool and damp and retains the rain.
Sow vegetable seeds again for a fall harvest of spinach, radishes and some varieties of leaf lettuce.
Tidy up plants and shrubs with a little judicious pruning, but early in the month.
Stake tall perennials, like delphinium and New England asters against the wind.
Cut your grass at least two-inches high to combat drying out. Water well when needed, or when it is allowed.
Check out bulb catalogues and order spring flowering bulbs before they’re gone
Finally pull or cut off the browned leaves of spring flowering bulbs. Trim back the iris leaves. My picky mother would take her best kitchen scissors and cut up one side of each leaf fan and then down the other side to make a neat arrow.
Fill in any gaps in your flower garden with fall-flowering perennial plants, like mums and asters.
Start drying flowers and herbs. Pick your lavender now for drying for sachets.
Start to dig up and divide daylilies as they stop blooming.
Collect seeds that have matured but not yet fallen from the seed head, plants like poppies. Once they have completely dried, store the seeds in air tight containers in a cool location or sprinkle them around your garden for colour next summer.
Take a hard look at your garden and take pictures too, so you can decide where there are empty spaces for new plants this fall. Identify any plants that have not performed well, (or you can’t stand) and plan to replace them with a fall planting program of shrubs and perennials.
Early Fall is a great time to sow grass seed and plant perennials, trees and shrubs. They will get a big jump vs planting next Spring!
Look for the annual Grey County Master Gardener’s fall plant sale, Saturday Sept. 14 from 9 a.m. until noon. It’s in Meaford again at the Meaford Rotary Harbor Pavilion. Choose from unique perennials and lots of native and pollinator plants at reasonable prices.
